Pundi X Prepares Its Indonesian Crypto-Payment Business

Pundi X, a startup company looking to build an offline crypto sales network, have started installing its payment point-of-sales (POS) machines in Indonesia, gambling on the belief that the central bank will reverse their current stance against cryptocurrencies in three years.

Pundi X wants to establish itself as the “7-Eleven or Walmart of cryptocurrency”. The company has already received pre-orders for its POS devices from Indonesia, South Korea, Japan, Singapore and Switzerland. The company plans to install around 100,000 POS devices to establish its blockchain-connected payments network in the South East Asian region by 2021. A POS terminal will be used to process card or electronic payments in select retail locations.

With the device, Pundi X hopes to make it easier for 80% of the unbanked Indonesian population to start buying and selling cryptocurrencies like bitcoin and Ethereum. Pundi X wants cryptocurrencies to become a medium of daily exchange, wherein they can be used for buying basic necessities in retail stores, convenience stores and shopping centers were the POS devices are installed.
Currently, Indonesia prohibits payments made in cryptocurrencies. And yet, David Ben Kay, Pundi X’s chief legal counsel said that the rollout of POS devices would depend on the company’s own schedule and completed despite any regulatory development. This is mainly because the POS device’s payment-by-crypto function is not the only and default payment option. The device is capable of other payment options that are compliant with current regulations as well.

“The functionality for dealing in cryptocurrency is not automatic, it has to be activated when it is legally permissible in any jurisdiction that the POS is being deployed by the retail store owners,” Kay said in an interview with the South China Morning Post.